Gaara's Journey Chapter Two
by Fluvial
Summary: Gaara recovers from his injury and clashes with his father.


7

Temari did what she could with the first aid kit until Kankuro came back about ten minutes later. Beads of sweat covered Gaara's body as he burned with fever. Following Kankuro was a wild looking man about the age of 60. He had long, white hair and wore long cream colored and grey robes. He busted through the main room, knocking down everything he came across. There was a good chance that he didn't even notice.

He stopped in front of the couch where Gaara lay. "Well now," he said in a deep almost soothing voice. "What have we got here?"

"I have no idea what happened to him," Temari gushed. "I've never even seen him get injured!"

The man pulled out a potion and poured it down Gaara's throat. He gagged a bit and for one excruciating second Temari and Kankuro thought he would wake up. "What are you doing?" Temari demanded.

"I'm giving him something that will make him stay alive no matter what for the next three hours."

"So it'll wear off in three hours?"

"Hopefully by then he'll be stabilized." The old man then injected something into a vein in Gaara's arm. His siblings watched in horror as his entire body went even more limp than it already was. He seemed to sink into the couch as all of his muscles relaxed.

"He's killed him!" Kankuro cried.

Though it was clear that both siblings had absolutely no faith in his intentions, the old man didn't appear to be the least offended. "I only put him into a deep sleep," he droned in his quiet voice. "I must seal the wound, and I wouldn't want him to regain consciousness during that time."

As the old man did his work, Kish's eyelids began to twitch slightly. "What's happening," he muttered. Then, as his eyes began to focus, he could see the clear image of the crazy old man who lived down the hill.

He sat straight up immediately, an assortment of trash cascading off of him. It was clear to him that Temari and Kankuro were standing quite near to the man, and not lifting a figure to drive him out. Could it be that they had let him in? _Willingly?_ "Temari! Kankuro! _What the hell have you done?"_

Temari turned fiercely on him. "Shhh! For goodness sake Dad, can't you see that he's,"

But Temari didn't have to finish her sentence. Kish stared straight ahead, his eyes growing large. "Is that…"

"Yeah it is," Kankuro snapped.

Kish covered his face, "No! I can't take something like this, not today. Ohhh, what to do, what to do?"

"Just stop it," Temari whispered suddenly becoming emotional. "He's really hurt, Dad."

Kish got a closer look. "Why does he, I mean, wow. That's a lot of blood." Then he shook his head around as more dynamics of the situation creeped into his head. "What's that old man doing to him?"

"Helping him," Kankuro growled. "Do you really think I would just be standing here if he wasn't?"

"You don't always think, Kankuro," Kish returned sounding a little like his old self. "For all you know the old man might be further destroying him."

"That's a valid thought," the old man interjected slowly. "But it's not what I'm doing."

"I don't see any healing chakra coming out of your hands," Kish challenged.

"This will take more than that," he replied. He was continuing to work the whole time as if he were merely cutting out a coupon out of a newspaper instead of cutting dead tissue out of an intestine and the surrounding muscles.

The man did a lot of sealing and resituating, then he poured healing potions into the cavity so the insides would heal more than half-way instantly. After that he stitched and stapled the gap. Once he had it closed he drenched it with more stuff saying that it would help it heal and prevent infection. Then he was gone.

Kish sat and stared at his son lying on a blood soaked couch sleeping peacefully for the time being. "Why did you bring him here?"

"What did you want me to do, Dad?"

"You know Temari," Kankuro said rubbing the back of his neck, "Dad's got a point. As soon as he wakes up he'll just throw a fit and try to kill us all."

Temari didn't want to answer. She was scared of the same thing.

"When will he wake up?" Kish wanted to know.

"He didn't say," Temari replied.

"Oh Buddha! It could be at any second! How are we supposed to get prepared?"

"Have you looked at these instructions, Dad?" Kankuro asked sounding grieved.

"What instructions?" Kish asked sounding more defeated still.

Temari snatched the paper from Kankuro and scanned the text rapidly. "Oh no."

"What is it?" Kish asked, "Come on, I can take it!"

"They're instructions for Gaara's post op care. Apparently he'll need his temperature taken every four hours, he'll need to take one of these pain potions every six hours, he'll need his bandages changed every –"

"Stop!" Kish cried throwing his arm aloft and sinking into the couch. "I can't hear anymore! He'll never hold still for any of that. Then he'll just die right in front of us."

At that moment, Gaara opened his eyes.

"Oh no," Kish squeaked. "It's happening."

"Dad," Temari hissed, "Don't you know your jutsu is a lot more powerful than his is?"

"You don't understand, my chakra levels have been 60/44 for days now!"

"Quit using that machine to measure it Dad, or it'll just make it worse," Kankuro muttered from the side of his mouth.

Gaara started to sit up, but then gasped and jerked back.

"Don't try to move," Temari said backing away from him.

He turned his head around to look at her. "What have you done? Why can't I move?"

"We didn't do anything!" Kankuro protested in fear. "We found you like that and,"

"Shut up. You're a babbling idiot and I never could stand to hear your nonsense." Then Gaara's eyes fell for the first time on Kish. At once he grinded his teeth in anger. "Where am I, why is he here?"

Kish sighed and looked down. "This is my home now, Gaara."

Gaara stared at him in silence for a moment. "I always suspected you'd meet your demise one of these days." Then he felt another twinge of pain and shut his eyes tightly. The pain potions were extremely potent (infused with narcotics of course) but being that Gaara hadn't experienced much pain (resulting in almost raw nerve endings) any amount of it was difficult.

"Do you want some water?" Temari offered.

"Yes."

"Here, I'll help him sit up," Kankuro said as he came towards Gaara.

Gaara glared at him with such hatred that it almost made Kankuro stop in his tracks. "Here we go," Kankuro wheezed as he tried to slide his hands under Gaara's armpits. "Nice and slow."

The next second Gaara screamed in pain and a blast of sand knocked Kankuro over and rained down all over the floor.

Kankuro got up and ran a few steps nearly tripping over a basket. He stared at Gaara in terror. "I don't know how to do it!"

Temari crept over, trying not to step on anything valuable. "Um, ok, let's do it together. I'll work with the top and you slide your hands underneath him so we can keep him straight, or at least his torso straight."

Gaara writhed a moment, and realized they were coming toward him. "Don't touch me. Stay away."

Gaara, you have to eat and drink something sometime, and how are you supposed to do that laying down? You'll choke."

Gaara put his hand up threateningly. "This would be easier if I had my gourd, but I don't need it."

"Dad, help us," Temari demanded irritably.

"What can I do?"

"Help us sit him up without hurting him."

"No one is touching me, especially him."

Temari and Kankuro ended up giving him an extra pain potion so he would pass out. It took ten minutes before it completely took effect. Gaara stared at the ceiling, his eyes getting bigger and bigger. "Nothing seems real… What have you done to me?"

Temari tried to explain, "Nothing Gaara, it's just –"

He seemed almost ready to cry. "You messed up my brain, you're trying to make me unable to use jutsu, you want me to go insane, I never should have trusted you."

"But Gaara," Kankuro started. "You never trusted us."

"Mother…" he begged. "Why did you let them do this to me? Why?" Then his eyes clamped shut.


End file.
